May 13, 2020
Flows: 277 cfs. (Decreased from ~350 on the 12th)
Water Temp: 40 @ 9a.
Water clarity: ~4’ to 6’
Air Temp: mid-30s @ 9a – low-70s @ 5p.
Hatches: Midge – 9a and again at ~3:30p, spotty BWO 11:30a to 3p.
Brian and I had agreed to meet in Deckers yesterday and fish either the Lone Rock Campground (our 1st choice) or the Between the Islands (2nd choice) areas – depending on crowds. It was about 8:45a when we met up at our 1st choice, the run on the west side of the Lone Rock Campground. This run is at the end of the Horseshoe Bend and we pretty much had it all to ourselves.
Lone Rock Campground Run with willows on the east side bank.
The Denver water department had lowered the flows about 75 cfs or so just the day before – which isn’t necessarily good news for fishing. It takes the fish a bit of time – I’ve read as much as a couple of days - to get adjusted to significantly lower flows. And it was kind of playing out that way. We fished and scouted the typical holding areas in the riffles, pools, and pocket water, but couldn’t see any fish.
I worked my way downstream back towards the road looking to see if I could spot any fish in the channel on the west side of the river. Having not spotted fish and not getting any hits – I worked my way back upstream. As I was doing so – I spotted a couple of fish feeding near the east side bank in the shallow water. This is the same place that I hooked up a few fish the week before.
My rig was set up with nymphs with a #16 Olive Caddis larva leading with a #22 Flashback Black Beauty and a #20 Top Secret Midge following. After a couple of adjustments to depth and weight – I hooked up a couple of fish – one rainbow and one brownie. With one hitting the caddis and the other the Top Secret Midge.
15" rainbow - taken in The Shallows.
Meanwhile, while I was fishing the shallows - Brian was able to land a nice brownie in the faster water toward the west side of the river. The fish spit the fly in the net, so Brian wasn’t sure what he took. It was either a Rainbow Warrior or a Black Beauty tied with red ribbing.
Even after catching a few fish, I wasn't happy with my setup. It was difficult to get the flies into the trout's feeding zone, even after taking my weight down to a single #6 split-shot. So I rigged up my Hopper/Dropper setup – actually it was a Hopper/Copper/Dropper (HDC) setup – devised by John Barr.
Well it was sort of the HCD that John uses. I’ve added a second fly to the Dropper – so I guess it’s a Hopper/Copper/Double Dropper setup. I used a Chubby Chernobyl as the Hopper, a #16 Red Copper John as the Copper, and a #22 Stalcup Baetis as one Dropper and a #20 Barr Emerger BWO as the other Dropper. This proved effective in getting the flies into the zone and bringing fish to net.
A couple of rainbow 15" and 17" taken on the HCD from The Shallows.
It was getting close to noon, when Brian suggested that we break for lunch. He was about 50’ upstream from me and as I was wading up to meet him, I spotted a nice fish feeding about 10’ off the bank in clear, slow water - no more than calf deep. I had seen this one earlier and tried to catch it – but I spooked it and he bolted before I could entice him to strike. The wind was swirling and on one of my casts - I made an adjustment for the wind to blow one way and it blew the other, causing my fly to land right on top of him. That’ll do it every time!
Thankfully the wind wasn’t blowing at this particular moment – allowing me to get some good casts in. I was setup behind the fish and casted about 6’ to 8’ above her and let my flies float back into his feeding zone. On the second cast, I saw the fish move about 8” to 10” and it was obvious that she was feeding on something – and just then my Hopper stopped (indicating a strike). I immediately set the hook and landed a nice rainbow in the 19” to 20” range. She took the Copper John.
The catch of the day.
Above photos by Brian Kenney.
She was thrashing about in the net and caused my flies to get tangled up. Once I released her, I got the flies untangled, but didn’t realize that the Copper John had broken free of the Hopper – and it and the Double Dropper flies floated off! Ugh – I was not happy, as that particular Copper John was tied about as good as I could get them. But it was good to see a fish take the Copper John – as I hadn’t caught one on that fly for a while and was losing a little faith.
So as I was getting ready to tie on some more flies – I realized that my nippers had broken off and disappeared! For those of you who don’t fish – nippers are gizmos that look a little like finger nail clippers and are used to cut the tag end of the line when tying on your flies. If you don’t have them, or a pair of scissors – you have to use your teeth! Luckily I had an extra nipper in my vest – or so I thought. I couldn’t find them, but I did have a pair of scissors though – saving my teeth. More on the nippers later.
After lunch we moved upstream. Brian had his sights on a spot on the south side of the canyon wall in the Diver Pool. On the way there, I stopped at the Sleeping Indian Hole to see if I could get a couple of fish before heading into the min-canyon and Diver Pool. As before, I could see fish feeding in the eddies and tail out – but couldn’t get them to take. I tried everything I could think of – increasing weight and depth. Then alternately decreasing depth, then decreasing weight, then going back to more depth. I was nymphing, and even changed my fly setup to include caddis, midges and baetis. Nothing worked – and I came to the conclusion that this hole is the most difficult hole I’ve ever fished!
So after about an hour – I decided that I’d go meet up with Brian in the Diver Pool. The Sleeping Indian Hole sits at the base of the mini-canyon where the Diver Pool is located – and I had to scale a smaller hill to get to where Brian was set up. The place only had enough room for one fisherman – so I decided to go to the other side of the river and fish there. I wasn’t sure how to get there - but it was up hill for sure. After climbing the 1st hill I was met with a cliff down into the canyon. So I had to climb another hill – and was then met with the same thing! Long story short – my climb took me to the very top of the canyon with the decent down to the opposite end of the Diver Pool. Sometimes you feel like a mountain goat when fly fishing!
A view from the top of the canyon.
Anyway, after crossing the river I was able to setup on the opposite side of the river from Brian. There were a few fishermen upstream from us, but I had almost the whole north side of the canyon to myself. My nymph rig was now setup with a #16 Beadhead Pheasant Tail leading, followed by a #20 Black BWO and a #20 Barr Emerger BWO. I was able to get a 12” brownie – who took what else – but the Bar Emerger. Not sure all that hiking was worth a 12’ brownie – but that’s what it ended up being.
Releasing the brownie. I walked a mile for this one!
Brian wanted to move downstream to where we had started – and I told him I’d meet him there in a bit. I wanted to fish the Eddie Pool on my way. It didn’t take me long to get snagged on a rock – causing me to lose all my flies on my nymph rig. Somewhere along the line – I had lost all my flies on the HCD except my hopper. And it was getting close to 4:30p and with the hike ahead of me to meet Brian – I decided not to tie up any more flies and head that way.
When I got there, there were a couple of fishermen near Brian and there wasn’t any room for another one. So I decided to scout around looking at the river bottom for structure that would hold trout (for future reference) and to see if I could spot any fish for Brian. I didn’t see any fish but I did find my nippers!
Weirdest thing. There are willows near the bank of the river – with paths cut into them leading to and from it. The willows are just about head height – and as I was walking along one of the paths I just happened to see my nippers - lodged into the branches of one of the willows! I’m not sure how they got there, but they looked like they had gotten snagged there and then broke off my lanyard. And they were within feet of where Brian found his wading stick last week.
The willows are on the right.
Do I hear Twilight Zone music?
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